Good Friday in Three Parts: Part I

For Our Sins

There is nothing particularly necessary about the maltreatment that Jesus suffers as part of His Passion. None of the animal sacrificial victims of the Old Law were abused prior to their sacrifice, and their slaughter was as humane as a sacrifice could be.  Even the goat of Yom Kippur, upon which the sins of the Nation were placed, was simply let free. The abuse that Christ suffered prior to His death is a result of human choice, of human acrimony, having to be done because Christ chose to subject Himself to whatever man wished to do to Him. It is a reflection and manifestation of the malice that lies in the heart of man, the movement of pride and will to lash out against God.  Jesus simply takes it and bears it all. Not just because He is atoning for past sins, but for these very present sins, and all future sins. For everything that man’s evil heart would like to do to his Creator, He simply takes it and offers forgiveness for every single lash of mistreatment and barb of abuse that we willingly do to Him.  Because His mercy is greater than our wickedness and His love deeper than any dark place that we would seek to hide from His Face in shame.

— PPP